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Friday, October 5, 2012

GM advocates must stop masquerading as objective

EXTRACT:
Unless their intention is to deliberately mislead the public, GM
advocates within the science community must stop masquerading as
objective by packaging their partisan views in a veil of "pure" science.

Fiona
Fox (Brave, not cruel, science, 29 September) attempts to portray the
Science Media Centre as a vehicle for impartial scientists to
communicate wholly progressive research to a fearful, and by
implication, irrational, public. In fact, the SMC is a well-oiled PR
machine, funded in part by chemical, pharmaceutical, and biotech
companies with a vested interest in seeing potentially profitable new
technologies and products commercialised.

Recently, the SMC tried
to stifle concerns arising from a study by molecular biologists at the
University of Caen, which showed that rats fed long-term on a
combination of GM corn, and its partner pesticide Roundup, developed
higher levels of cancer than normal Within minutes of the results being
published in a peer-reviewed journal, the SMC swung into action,
spoon-feeding journalists ready-made quotes from eight hand-picked
scientists, rubbishing the research and its authors. The SMC introduced
these experts to the media solely by listing the universities and public
institutions that employ them, failing to give the full flavour of
their interests: seven out of eight are either evangelical advocates of
GM food, or have received funding from, or worked with, prominent
biotech corporations.

Unless their intention is to deliberately
mislead the public, GM advocates within the science community must stop
masquerading as objective by packaging their partisan views in a veil of
"pure" science.

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